Polishing using “diamond”

[jimorbev]

I am a new (again) member and very new to faceting. I like it! But I find myself confused and since there are not any faceting member of the local rock club I am reaching out.

I am lucky enough to have a good assortment of laps, copper, ceramic, Zinc, Zinc+, batt, ba5t, wizard, darkside and ultra laps and a wide variety of polishes. The majority of this was given to me along with a very impressive collection of rough.
So far I have about 15 stones and I see improvement. My confusion is about the use of various diamond products. I watch utube but…
1. Can the same lap (say zinc+) be used for more than one diamond grit? If yes how do you avoid contamination?
2. I see various agents used – WD40, snake oil, and other. Is one better than another? If you sue WD40 on a Batt can you later use snake oil?
3. Is there a “newer” book that does a deep dive into the newer polishes and how to use? I have read quite a few books but they seem to be conflicting. I understand that polishing is NOT a recipe.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.
jim

[jimorbev]

OK still struggling but not giving up.

Gearloose does not recommend using friable diamond compounds on the BATT or the BA5T. How do you identify if a product contains friable diamond compounds? Is it one the label?

I am considering my first attempt to polish with diamond will be:
1. Pre-polish on Zinc+ using 8 or 13K pandimonium
2. Polish on BATT 60,000 pandimonium

Is this a good strategy or should I consider a different process. I have two new Zinc+ laps, 1 new BATT, 1 new ceramic, 1 new copper, 1 new wizzard. I am concerned about using the wrong product on the wrong lap.

Any help will be appreciated.
jim

[bthomason]

Try purchasing a lightning lap. lightninglap.com LL-t-nat-topper
It will not absorb the diamond, just wash it between grit change.
They also sell diamond impregnated toppers, as well as diamond laps. Toppers are much cheaper, just use a good master lap.
You can also just use a smooth running cutting lap as a master.

[nitrobike]

Question 1 from 4th Jan; Use only one grit on the zinc or zinc+ disk. You can change it, but only from finer to courser grind. For instance, you can go from 8k to 3k on it, but you shouldn’t go from 3k to 8 k. I mark the obverse side of my disks with the grit and store them separately to avoid cross contamination.

Question 2. Oils are a preference. I have used coconut cooking oil as an extender with good results, then washed the disk and added pandamonium. If you change oils, just wash so they don’t react to each other and form blobs.

[jimorbev]

Thank you for the replies and information. I will hold off buying a LL for a while. I will try using 13K as pre-polish on zink+ and 50K on a BATT this weekend. Fingers crossed!

jim

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